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“I knew I
was ready,” Jones says, “but in my mind, the backcourt still belonged to Bob
Cousy and Bill Sharman. They were great, great players who had earned their
right to start. Replacing Bill as the starter at that point, well that was
by necessity. He was hurting and the team needed me to step up.”
With
Sharman retired and Jones the unquestioned starter, Boston posted a 60-20
record and earned a date with Wilt Chamberlain and the Philadelphia Warriors
in the 1962 Eastern Division Finals. It was classic battle; in the
thrilling seventh-game showdown, with the score tied at 107 and two seconds
left, Jones hit a jump shot over the outstretched arms of Chamberlain to
seal the win. After the game Chamberlain hailed Jones as the Celtics' best
player. Auerbach lauded his guard’s coolness under pressure and predicted
that Jones would be ready to produce further heroics if needed. The
comments would prove prophetic; in the NBA Finals against the Los Angeles
Lakers, Jones again came through, scoring five of the Celtics' 10 overtime
points in Game 7 to propel Boston to a fourth straight NBA crown.
With
Jones in his prime and his reputation as a clutch performer spreading
throughout the league, it was also becoming apparent that Jones’ favorite
shot – the stop-and-pop bank shot – was a deadly accurate weapon, and one of
the most feared shots in the game. His quickness, intelligence and knack
for finding the open spot on the court allowed him to get the shot off even
when opponents tried sticking like glue.
“I
started shooting the bank shot in high school,” Jones says. “I wasn’t a
great outside shooter and I struggled a little making layups, so I worked on
my shooting technique and I focused on using the backboard. I picked out my
target and I’d shoot for hours. I got to the point where I could really
trust that shot, and it helped the rest of my game.”
And about
that knack for seemingly always being in the right place at the right time?
"You
simply can't stand still," he explains. "When the ball is shot, the defender
has to turn his head to see where the rebound is going. When I see we have
the rebound, I immediately go to another position on the court. The man who
is guarding me has his back to me now and he doesn't know I've moved. He
has to turn around and look for me. It doesn’t have to be much. Just an
opening. That’s all you need, because you only need a split second to get a
shot off."
The
Celtics would win the titles in 1963 and 1964, giving them six consecutive
championships and cementing their status as a dynasty. Jones scoring
average continued to climb as well, as he, along with John Havlicek, became
the focal points of the offense. The retirement of Bob Cousy following the
1962-63 season also ushered in a new era in the Boston backcourt, and one
with a distinct defensive feel. Cousy, replaced in the starting lineup by
defensive specialist KC Jones, could only marvel at the quality of play
exhibited by the duo nicknamed “The Jones Boys”.
“It was a
great pairing,” Cousy says. “It gave Arnold [Auerbach] a different
dimension that what he had with me and Sharman, and he knew how to coach to
their strengths. It helped keep the championships coming, that’s for sure.”
Jones
averaged a career-high 25.9 PPG during the 1964-65 season, good enough for
fourth in the league, and landed in the NBA All-Star Game for the third time
in his career. Noteworthy to be certain, but statistics and individual
accolades were of little concern. Sam Jones was a team player who shared
Russell’s singular desire to win it all, all the time.
"Scoring
averages don’t mean a thing, " he says. "Making the All-Star team, and
being named All-NBA, those things don’t mean a thing either. Every guy on
those Celtic teams had the ability to lead the team in scoring if that's
what he was asked to do. But we all had a role to play. We all knew what
was expected of us, and what each of us had to do in order to win the
championship. It was the most unselfish group of people I’ve ever been
associated with. It’s also why I didn’t want to be inducted into the hall
of fame without my teammates. To me, what we did wasn’t about one person.
It was only about Bill Russell or Sam Jones. It was about the entire team,
the roles we played, and the sacrifices that we made in order to achieve
something bigger.”
The
Celtics continued sacrificing and kept right on winning, adding two more
titles to the coffer before Auerbach bowed out as head coach following the
1965-66 season. Rumors swirled as to who would take over the reins, but in
Auerbach’s mind there was only one other man who could coach the great Bill
Russell: Russell himself.
“Great
choice,” Jones says without hesitation. “Russell was at the perfect point
in his career to coach the Boston Celtics. It was a veteran team, a close
team, and we were all focused on championships. That was all that
mattered.”
Russell’s
first season as player/coach ended in disappointment, as the Celtics
succumbed 1-4 to Wilt Chamberlain and the eventual champion Philadelphia
76ers. Jones played well throughout, leading the team with a 22.1 PPG
scoring average, and although he failed to make the All-Star Team for the
first time in four years, Jones was named to the All-NBA Second Team. The
Celtics, meanwhile, were viewed by many as too old to challenge for another
championship. They proved the experts wrong by winning it all in 1968 and
repeating in 1969, with Jones playing a huge role in Game 4 of that ’69
series against the Los Angeles Lakers. Behind by one point with seven
seconds remaining, the Celtics called a timeout and Russell didn’t hesitate
in choosing the player to take the game-winning shot. When Jones found the
ball in his hands, he did what he always did best.
"I knew
that last shot was good from the moment it left my hand," Jones says,
smiling. "There never was any doubt because I had time to release the shot
properly, and I trusted my technique completely. That took the pressure
off. The ball rolled right over the cylinder. We won that game, and then
we went on to win the championship."
The ’69
championship gave Russell 11 titles in 13 seasons, while Jones finished with
10 in 12. Both retired as two of the greatest legends to ever wear a Boston
Celtic uniform. Perhaps the greatest compliment anyone paid to Jones was
supplied by Auerbach at a special ceremony at Boston Garden. "I would like
to thank Sam Jones," he said at the time, "for making me a helluva coach."
In 1970,
Jones was named to the NBA 25th Anniversary All-Time Team, and in 1983 he
was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. In
1996, Jones – Mr. Clutch to you – was further honored by being named to the
NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team.
Celtic Nation is honored to bring you this interview.
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